Cherokee’s web presence a work in progress
The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians’ website received the lowest score of any of those reviewed by The Smoky Mountain News, coming in with an overall 1.4 out of 5.
Log onto www.nc-cherokee.com, and it’s not hard to see why the score was so low. The site contains a brief welcome message, links to some external sites such as Cherokee Central Schools and The Cherokee One Feather, a link to livestreamed Tribal Council meetings, and little else. Try a Google search, and you’re more likely to come up with an outdated page listing former tribal employees’ contact information than a page listing current staff and department heads.
However, the site is currently under construction, according to a message on the homepage, and some links on the page redirect to www.ebci.com, a much more modern-looking site that currently houses only information about the Human Resources Department and a link to Tribal Council meetings.
While the existing website is impossible to navigate, the EBCI does have a significant number of resources available online — just not housed through easy-to-find links. Tribal members interested in learning more about their government may want to visit the following:
• easternband.legistar.com houses agendas for Tribal Council and Budget Council, including links to supporting documents.
• www.theonefeather.com/cherokee-elected-officials lists emails for Tribal Council members and chiefs, as well as phone numbers and mailing addresses for Tribal Council members. The Cherokee One Feather is the tribal newspaper but is owned by the tribal government.
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• www.livestream.com/accounts/10717024 contains livestreams and video archives of Tribal Council meetings, work sessions and other events.
www.nc-cherokee.com/government/
Population: 15,000 tribal members
2016-17 Budget: $527 million
Annual website expense: N/A
Initial website expense: N/A
Year launched: N/A
Avg. visits/month: N/A
Avg. unique visitors/month: N/A
